Who Regulates Assisted Living Facilities?

There are actually 51 different regulators involved in setting and enforcing standards for assisted living facilities. Each state and the District of Columbia’s local government has designated a government agency to oversee assisted living facilities and assisted living homes. No nationwide government agency has authority to set standards or make rules affecting assisted living facilities.
If this seems strange to you, it may be because of the confusion between nursing homes and assisted living facilities. Nursing homes are licensed to provide medical services that are beyond the scope of most assisted living facilities. Because they are routinely involved in providing medical services, they deal with insurance organizations including Medicare and Medicaid. In most states, nursing homes are regulated by both a state agency and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the CMS.
This means that assisted living is an important element of the senior care system for which there are no nationwide, uniform standards. In some states, the caregiver staff in assisted living and other types of senior care is required to have specific training. In others, there is no training requirement at all. As the popularity of assisted living has grown, so has the number of unfortunate incidents that might have been avoided by a better-trained caregiver staff.
This makes it all the more important to take great care in choosing an assisted living facility. Seniors, their families and loved ones should carefully investigate all potential senior care, senior living and assisted living facilities. Consumers can determine which agency is responsible for senior care and assisted living regulation in their state by “Googling” a question like, “who regulates assisted living facilities in Georgia.” A search engine receiving this query would lead you to the Georgia Department of Community Health, which is responsible for regulation of assisted living communities and personal care homes in that state.
In Florida, the go-to agency for assisted living and other senior care facilities regulation is the Agency for Health Care Administration. AHCA is responsible for licensing assisted living and other senior care facilities, investigating complaints, background checking for assisted living staff and many other functions. This agency does an outstanding job, but this does not mean that Florida seniors and their loved ones do not have to do their own checking. This is just good common sense.
Finding Assisted Living and FindingAssistedLiving.com exist to help seniors with just this type of challenge. FAL’s staff and its trusted business and professional associates are prepared to help smooth the transition to any form of senior living, including assisted living facilities. It is our aim to make every person’s transition to senior living as safe, secure and satisfying as possible. Finding Assisted Living is familiar with the local providers of senior care and assisted living facilities, as well as, home health care and other in home health care options. We can answer questions like, “What are the best assisted living facilities near me?” When you need trustworthy and unbiased advice about these or any other senior living questions, please call on us. You can contact FindingAssistedLiving.com or cal 866-333-2657.